Outlander Gaelic

[kiltedcontractor]

I must apologize. I did not mean to indicate that outlander has many inaccuracies. There are some minor questione re:costuming(from what ive read), ive also seen discussions that indicate a woman would never get away with some of Claire s antics. The slight shifting of witch trial dates (about 20 yrs as i understand it) is a minor infraction. Some other fictional/historical shows are abusive to history . I see that as a trend to make story lines. As much as i love Viking series, they are offenders. Rollo and Ragnar are around 100 yrs apart. There are more , this is not the forum.

[OC Richard]

All I can say about the Outlander Gaelic is that I, with my rudimentary first-year University Gaelic, can often follow what is being said fairly well.

I was astounded that the producers had the courage to have long scenes in which all, or nearly all, the conversation is in Gaelic, and without subtitles!

Scots may not realize that the Disney/Pixar movie Brave was shown in some theatres in the US with subtitles. This amazed me, as (to me) the English was plain as day. Likewise, the first Mad Max movie is still shown on US TV with Mel Gibson's voice dubbed with an American voice actor.

This being the case, I imagine it was a hard sell to the American producers, to have all the Gaelic dialogue without subtitles in Outlander. It makes perfect sense, because the whole point is that this woman is in an alien place. The audience is seeing it through her eyes, and since she doesn't have subtitles neither do we.

[freep]

One of the things I liked best about "The Thirteenth Warrior" was the way they dealt with the Arab learning Norse. At first sitting round the fire, all that is heard is Norse. As time passes the an Arabic (actually English) word or two creeps in. As the journey progresses more and more is understandable until (as I recall) one of the Norsemen makes a rude comment about our Arab hero who curses him back in accented though fluent Norse. Well done directors John McTiernan and Michael Crichton.

[freep]

I must apologize. I did not mean to indicate that outlander has many inaccuracies. There are some minor questione re:costuming(from what ive read), ive also seen discussions that indicate a woman would never get away with some of Claire s antics. The slight shifting of witch trial dates (about 20 yrs as i understand it) is a minor infraction. Some other fictional/historical shows are abusive to history . I see that as a trend to make story lines. As much as i love Viking series, they are offenders. Rollo and Ragnar are around 100 yrs apart. There are more , this is not the forum.

I did not mean to imply you did. I'm curious as to what you did catch. Finding historical inaccuracies or continuity flaws (When the armistice is announced Claire is standing outside and given a bottle of white wine. The next shot shows her with a bottle of red wine) or those things that make me wonder what the actual history says about it.

I like Vikings (even though "viking" is a verb and not a noun. One isn't a Viking, one goes viking i.e. raiding). I'm willing to give them a bit of leeway as for the first season I fact checked and while Ragar did not do everything they portray in the movie, someone in Norse history did. Much like the setup for the Lindesfarne raid--by the era depicted in the show, the existence of England was well known to the Norse, it was just a tough slog to get over there. As to Rollo, I'd always assumed he was a fictional character like Floki et al. I know how the real Ragnar allegedly died and I'm curious as to when we're going to get to that. I've not checked them lately and the raid on Paris didn't seem quite right to me. I'll check again, maybe soon. ;)

Oh, and viking is properly pronounced "wicking." At least in Swedish and Norwegian. As I recall from that trip the Danes say, "Meh, have some schnapps!"

[Bruce Scott]

Oh, and viking is properly pronounced "wicking." At least in Swedish and Norwegian. As I recall from that trip the Danes say, "Meh, have some schnapps!"

My wife is Norwegian and she pronounces the word as vick-ing with a 'V'. Swedish, Norwegian and Danish pronunciations can be heard here: http://forvo.com/word/viking/

[freep]

All the Norwegians and Swedes I spoke to (and I asked most of them about viking stuff) said 'wicking.' Regional thing maybe? We were in Stockholm, Oslo and Bergen.

[freep]

My wife is Norwegian and she pronounces the word as vick-ing with a 'V'. Swedish, Norwegian and Danish pronunciations can be heard here: http://forvo.com/word/viking/

Listened to all the forvo pronunciations and you are correct. It is a 'v' sound, however, the whole word is pronounced not in the US English manner of VY-king but more like veek-ING, which to my ear on a casual listen causes it to sound like week-ING.

I stand corrected.

[Bruce Scott]

Yes, Lise's pronunciation sounds very much like veek-ing to my ear.